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->''"Reputation takes a lifetime to build and only seconds to destroy."''-->-- '''Arnold Rothstein''', ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.

Many people have the tendency to take some characters and narrowly define them based on one action or event, often to the exclusion of other, often more important, actions of that character.

Often, this is perfectly understandable, if that action or event stands out more than anything else the character did. But just as often it doesn't, and it can seem as if some people just haven't been paying attention.

Let's take a hypothetical show, ''[[AliceAndBob Bob Loves Alice]]''. There is a fan favorite episode where Bob gets caught up in a game of darts. He isn't that good, and he never really tries darts again. A bunch of fans like that episode enough that, in loads of FanFiction, Bob sucking at darts [[MemeticLoser is his defining characteristic]] and it's what everyone knows him for, when in actual {{Canon}}, it's never really mentioned again.

In short, it's like {{Flanderization}}, but instead of actually making the character like that, everyone just ''thinks'' the character is like that. Sounds silly, but [[TruthInTelevision it's all too real]].

On the internet, it is usually the person's never live it down-ed aspect that undergoes MemeticMutation.

This can also turn even worse when those fans start RunningTheAsylum in that show's later seasons, and now everyone on the show talks about how Bob sucks at darts (maybe even calling him "[[EmbarrassingNickname Sucky Dart-Playing Guy]]" or suchlike) while ignoring all the other things Bob has done since then. But you never see Bob playing darts, because surely we've seen enough of that. No, we haven't. We've seen it once. And since this is placing all of Bob's more prominent traits and events behind this minor one, it even risks taking away a dimension of CharacterDepth.

DieForOurShip victims are a subset of this, best remembered for being the ones that got in the way of a lot of people's {{OTP}}s.

When the show decides to remind you that Bob-The-Sucky-Dart-Player is not his canon personality, that's ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat.

RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun seems like this, but it merely harks back to a character's CrowningMomentOfAwesome, not pretend that's all the character does. Also related is OneSceneWonder, where a small guest star starts to dominate FanFic.

Keep in mind that in order to qualify for this trope, a person has to have done good things as well as bad ones. An outright criminal or psychopath ''deserves'' to be remembered solely for being evil, especially if he/she [[FromNobodyToNightmare never had a chance to become famous otherwise]].

Has nothing to do with a character who can't forget their sins. For ''that'', see MyGreatestFailure, BeAllMySinsRemembered, TheAtoner, MyGodWhatHaveIDone, and CartesianKarma. FallenHero and FaceHeelTurn are the two most tragic examples of this.